I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable alarm for use with network and communication devices.
II. Description of the Related Art
Technological innovations have resulted in increasingly portable communication devices. Portable communication devices may, for example, include wireless handsets, personal digital assistants, and computer laptops. With the size, weight and power requirements of these portable communication devices diminishing, service providers have begun promoting a variety of enhanced wireless data applications, including, for example, Internet access, e-mail and m-commerce (i.e., mobile commerce). As the demand for these services is expected to proliferate, one byproduct is an anticipated increase in traffic.
To date, service providers have typically billed their customers using a combination of fixed access fees and variable charges. These variable charges may be derived from a user's connect time to a service provider's network. More particularly, a service provider may bill for each time interval (e.g., per minute) a customer accesses its network. With the emergence of wireless data applications, as well as the growing usage of calling cards (e.g., pre-paid and non-pre-paid), users may increasingly require a management tool for tracking their connect time during each billing period, and thusly, monitoring their variable charges.
Presently, some known portable communication devices (e.g., Ericsson's cellular phone model T39, and Siemens' cellular phone models 3508, 3518i and 3568) offer such a management tool for tracking connect time. Once a customer accesses a service provider's network, an alarm is fixed in time to trigger after the passage of each time interval. This periodic alarm may, for example, be realized by a tone or melody.
One notable shortcoming of these hereinabove management tools for tracking connect time is the periodic alarm. More particularly, each alarm periodically arrives no earlier than the beginning of the next time interval. As the periodic alarm may be received until essentially after the beginning of the next time interval, these known management tools fail to provide the customer with an opportunity to timely respond to the alarm—e.g., determine whether to continue or terminate accessing the service provider's network. Thusly, the customer is billed for this next time interval, at the very least, even though the purpose of the management tool for tracking connect time is to afford the customer the opportunity to promptly terminate access to the service provider's network.
Consequently, a need exists for a management tool for tracking connect time that affords the customer the opportunity to promptly terminate access to the service provider's network. Moreover, a demand exists for such a management tool that may be varied in accordance with particular parameters, including customer preferences.